This deck was conceived by Roland
Berrill. "Who is Roland Berrill?", you are thinking.
Well, he was the founder of Mensa. Per the little booklet that
comes with the deck, "Berrill had a lifelong interest in
various aspects of the occult, although not as a member of any
special group. His particular interest was tarot and he believed
a link existed between tarot, astrology and certain forms of
gnosticism." Berrill commissioned an artist to draw his deck
in the 1950's. He wanted the deck to "reflect the imagery of
design prevalent in 12th century Fez". He believed that
tarot symbolism was misunderstood after the fall of Fez Morocco
in the 12th century. The Gypsies are also mentioned, though it is
not clear whether he believed they were responsible for bringing
tarot to Europe. The deck was originally published in a limited
and numbered edition of 500, but both Berrill and the artist died
before they could be distributed. The US Games version is a
reproduction of the original.

The art is not the best I have seen. I
don't care for the artist's rendering of faces. The style is
similar to pen and ink drawings, though selected portions of the
cards are colored, primarily in red, yellow, blue and green.
Almost all of the people in the cards have yellow hair, though
the Queen of Wands, with her green tresses is a notable
exception. The Majors and Minors are all illustrated, and are
very similar to Pamela Colman Smith's work. The Minors are not
numbered, though if one is familiar with the Waite-Smith deck,
the numbers will not be missed. The Majors are numbered very
faintly at the bottom of each card, but unlike most decks, they
are not named on the card.

The cards are very lightly coated with a
matte finish. My deck is fairly old (back from the days when US
Games was in NYC), so I don't know if newer printings are the
same. The little booklet that comes with the deck is rather
unremarkable providing a short background on the deck, upright
and reversed divinatory meanings and the Celtic Cross spread. I
recommend this deck for collectors, and those who are looking for
a sedate Waite-Smith clone.